


into steel

by FreshBrains



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anger, Canonical Character Death, Established Relationship, F/F, Female Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Heartbreak, Mates, Moving On, Teen Wolf Femslash Week, The Alpha Pack, Tumblr: twfemslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 04:16:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2095452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreshBrains/pseuds/FreshBrains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Marin, come home.  Something happened.”  The light went dead, her brother’s voice replaced by the drone of the dial tone.</p>
<p>But Marin already knew.  She felt it the moment it happened, like a bullet to the chest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	into steel

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Teen Wolf Femslash Week! This is intended for the Rarepair-themed day.

“Marin, come home.  Something happened.”  The light went dead, her brother’s voice replaced by the drone of the dial tone.

But Marin already knew.  She felt it the moment it happened, like a bullet to the chest.

*

She packed three things in her battered briefcase—her cell charger, her bestiary, and her diary.  She left her stack of bridal magazines on her night table; she left her and Laura’s clothes untouched in the closet.  A half-full cup of coffee and an open Marvel comic remained on Laura’s side of the bed and Marin was afraid to look at it.

(They would remain there for six months).

She touched her engagement ring every few seconds, pressed the stone to her chest like it could heal the wound.

She called Alan again in the car but he didn’t answer—in her haste to leave, she was a mess, still wearing her white terry cloth slippers, her gas tank only a quarter full.  Her wallet was in the cup-holder.  She fumbled with the buttons on her cell and called one of the only people she trusted anymore.

“Brae?  Braeden, no questions.  Book me a red eye to Beacon Hills.”

She drove to the airport, planning to ditch the car in the lot—it could burn, it could explode for all she cared.  She just needed to be in Beacon Hills.

“Why did you go back,” she murmured, voice husky from her stunned silence.  “Why the hell do you go back there, Laura Hale?”

Half a mile from the airport, she pulled the car over, got out on the side of the highway, and screamed into the night.

*

“What happened?”  Marin opened the clinic doors, letting them bang into the wall.  Her entire body trembled like her veins ran with espresso, her teeth chattered though it was still summer.  “For fuck sakes, Alan, what the hell happened?”

Alan stood behind the front counter, face grim, palms pressed against the desk.  “She’s gone, Marin.”

“I know that, I’m her _mate_ ,” she hissed, running a hand through her greasy hair.  Her ring caught in a snag and it only made her angrier, made her chest feel more hollow.  “I also know it takes a hell of a lot to kill an alpha werewolf.  I’m asking you, _what happened?”_

“Cut in half,” Alan said bluntly, jaw ticking.  “Left in the preserve.”

Before that moment, Marin never knew what heartbreak felt like.

*

“What are you going to do?”  Braeden lay next to her on the motel bed.  Derek was staying down the hall; he arrived shortly after Marin.  Despite them living in the same state, Marin didn’t even think to call him.

Marin shrugged, body weak from sadness, from hollowness.  “What can I do?  I’m a trained emissary.  I’ll find another pack.  Move on.”  She kept her gaze hard on the ugly wallpaper across the room—her mother always told her to stay strong, stay cool, turn her eyes and spine and hands into steel.

“I know you’ll find another emissary role,” Braeden said gently, twining her fingers through Laura’s.  Her purple sweater sleeve brushed Marin’s wrist, and Marin thought about the lilac-colored bridesmaid’s dress she already ordered for Braeden, her Braeden, her only friend left in the world.  “But what about…everything else?”

Marin inhaled sharply, still staring at the wall.  “There’s nothing I can do.  She’s gone.”

“But,” Braeden said, voice cracking in a way Marin never heard before, “she was our _alpha_.”  Her voice was thick with grief, with an emotion that made Marin ache all over again.

“Was,” Marin said coldly, and instantly loathed herself.

Braeden left the next day, kissing Marin on the cheek, and disappeared for a year.

*

The new pack was strong—all alphas.  Five alphas, five strong bodies, five werewolves who could die from a blade and leave Marin alone again.

“I’m taking a break,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest, leaning against the exam table in Alan’s clinic.  “I’m studying in Belgium next fall.  My training is becoming out of date.”

The blind alpha opened his mouth to speak, but the woman, Kali, cut in.  “If I understand correctly, you were alpha to the late Laura Hale?”

Marin swallowed the stone in her throat.  “I think we all know this is correct.”

Kali crossed the room to stand before Marin, and her eyes glowed softly, almost pink in the light.  She held out her hand and Marin took it.  “I’m so sorry for your loss.  I too have lost my loved one.”

That was what made Marin become emissary to their pack, that tall alpha’s compassion, the sadness in her eyes.

It was the greatest mistake she ever made.

*

Marin still wore her engagement ring.  When Alan asked why, she picked up one of his blue ceramic dinner plates, threw it onto the floor, and sobbed in his arms for three hours.

Marin Morrell was _not_ okay.

*

“The youngest Hale is an alpha now,” Alan said, a small smile on his lips as he washed his hands in the clinic sink.  “Derek gave his alpha status to her.”

Cora Hale, pretty little Cora with her dark braid and hard eyes, gave Marin a small wave from where she sat on the exam table, a bandage still on her forehead. 

“You’re a lucky girl,” Marin said, remaining in the doorway.  “With a very brave brother.”

Cora nodded, licking her lips.  “I remember you.  I didn’t before, but…your perfume.”

_Lavender, marshmallows, lemon, and Ivory Soap,_ Laura always said to describe Marin’s simple drugstore body spray.  It was the only thing she over wore.  “Your sister gave it to me for Christmas one year.”

Cora nodded again.  “I miss her.”

Marin uncrossed her arms, letting them dangle at her sides.  Cora was nothing like Laura—Laura was tall, strong, bold, but steady, gentle, and peaceful.  She had a sense of humor but cried easily.  Cora was a vague outline of the woman Marin once loved, but it was still enough to make Marin’s chest tighten, her eyes water.  “I do too.”

Cora glanced at Deaton, who nodded in something like approval.  She looked back at Marin, chewing her lip.  “I need an emissary now.”

Marin sighed, and straightened her back.  _Steel yourself, Marin.  This is who you are._ “Well, then.  Let’s begin.”


End file.
